The End and What It Brought
by OnceAlways
Summary: "I'm still waiting," he said.  Post-war AR, DHr.


**Disclaimer: **The plot itself is not mine; rather it is based on part of a music video by a popular Taiwanese girl group, S.H.E, titled 我爱你 or in English, I Love You. I highly encourage you to listen to or watch that song/video, because it's really touching and based on real,historical events. Namely, the separation of Taiwan from China.

* * *

In the darkened hall, in the crowded alley, in the flashing battleground... Eyes meet, hands touch, relieved smiles... Fade into the background, fade...! The end of the war as they know it but the political background rife with strife and the only thing they know -each other- bound by past beliefs.

It's another alley, another archway where they hold another clandestine meeting under the threat of curious passers-by. Her hands tremble, and her flyaway curls bounce, almost sensing her own distress. He stands? Under the archway where they used to meet and she thrusts a wooden box at him, frantic with the lack, oh the sorry lack, of time.

"I've got to go - they won't let me- you need to wait for me, wait for me! I'll come back to you, I will, wait for me! The box, it contains, contains all my love! Wait for me!"

She gasps out, past tears, past breathlessness, past his questioning gaze that turns understanding, turns angry and sorrowful. Before she can spin on the spot and crack out his last sight of her he shouts, heart and voice full of desperation.

"I'll wait! If you come back to me I'll be waiting at the school where this began! I'll wait for as long as you need me to!"

She turns, unable to face him, and goes with a crack of finality, of broken hearts and uncontrollable emotions. The war, oh the stupid war, has brought them closer and splintered them apart, a part of each other still nestled in their hearts unable to reunite. Where once the muggle-born, the mudblooded were condemned, the sympathetic pure-of-blood are now scorned, and the disgrace of it all splits The Wizarding World in half. And he can only stay, while she can only leave, for by virtue of connections he is imprisoned and she, needed by the rest to set an example of bravery and beyond. She will follow her friends to create a new world; he will stay with his family to pick up the pieces. And if ever the halves reconnect and the two meet, it will be tenuous; but it must be enough for them.

It is when she is white and creaky limbs, playing with her grandchildren (you can't BE an example without a family, they argued) that she finally receives notice from her son.

"He's alive. You know, the man in that photograph in the corner of your third drawer. He's at the school."

The bomb is casual, smug, like he thinks it's a great birthday gift for her fragile soul. And oh, if only he knew...! That perhaps his father, not Ron, not Harry, wasn't meant to be quiet, unassuming, gentle and mild, a steady earner and an overall humble man. No, he was supposed to be snarky, intelligent, arrogant to a fault and a reformed delinquent with a horribly misplaced sense of pride.

But age and disuse of her brain for less than academic tripe sends her reeling. The implications! The school! Forty-odd wasted years! Why had he waited for her when it was so painfully obvious that she would never, never be allowed to return? She leaves the group of family members, not like what she imagined once, and returns to her desk, pulling out a quill and paper, scratching out letter in shaky handwriting; the first time in a long time that she has not dictated her notes to a quick-quotes quill, writing out the remnants of her younger, stronger, purer, whole, heart and conveys it with her personal owl. In it the details of her life thus far, her questions and an undercurrent torrent of emotions that she has not succeeded in concealing.

He sends only three words back in return for all her efforts, but it's enough to have her demanding to return to him for a visit, her bossy nature reappearing for the first time since the birth of her first son.

"I'm still waiting," he wrote.

* * *

A/N:_ So... How was it? :) I don't claim anything for plot, only the language. I want to know, was I clear enough? What can I do to improve?_

被劃破的信心

Trust that was broken

需要時間痊癒

Needs time to heal

夢想纏著懷疑

Dreams are full of suspicion

未來看不清

The future is unclear

就緊緊的擁抱

So a tight embrace

去傳遞能量和勇氣

Will convey strength and courage

-我爱你 (S.H.E)

(p.s: could someone please check this for me? I know simplified Chinese but not traditional, and this translation is based both on an earlier translation from a google search and my knowledge of both Chinese and English which isn't exactly a vote of confidence... Thank you!)


End file.
